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[Page 102]
[31st July contd]
made messines Rd we arrived after passing over our old front line & Fritzs and the ploughed up country behind at Gooseberry Farm. Then work commenced to put our surplus gear in one of our old machine gun emplacements, surprisingly strong & originally put up in the ruins of a farm. It consisted of two square rooms of concrete reinforced built on top of each other & about 1 ft thick. The machine gun stand was still in position. Our barrage at about 6 pm had somewhat abated but the enemy's continued.
At this moment I cannot help remarking at the manner in which the old messines battlefield is ploughed up. There still remains remnants of rifles bombs shells ammunition waggons guns, in fact everything including human bones and the smell certainly suggested the proximity of dead bodies. But however the battlefield had changed considerably since the battle of messines for grass had actually grown over some portions of the ground.
I was detailed to proceed from Gooseberry Farm to a position well forward called Railhead where we received patients from Cross Avenue R.A.P. bearers & proceeded from there to German dugout junction where the next relay carried on. We were exceedingly fortunate